780 Crow Roosts and Roosting Crows. (September, 
son, for in their struggle for self-preservation they have re- 
nounced the sheltered retreats of pine forests and when forced to 
seek another refuge invariably select higher ground and decidu- 
ous woods, preferring to perch on the topmost twigs of bare and 
leafless branches, and brave thus the rigors of a winter's night 
than court destruction among the dense pines, whose darkling 
shade conceals the movements of their arch enemy. The partial 
migration of crows to the vicinity of Philadelphia from North and 
West leaves a few individuals to winter in New England and 
some of the Western States, but their numbers are, comparatively 
speaking, so insignificant that their roosting places have not been 
noticed by ordinary observers. I received word from William 
Brewster, of Cambridge, that, while he has no personal knowl- 
edge of roosts in New England, “a taxidermist in Brookline (near 
Boston) told (him) years ago that there was a roost somewhere 
near his house to which several hundred resorted every night 
through the winter.” ; 
A foot-note in Wilson’s account of Corvus americanus refers in- 
cidentally to a similar place in New York State. It reads thus: 
“A few years ago,” says an obliging correspondent, “I resided 
on the banks of the Hudson, about seven miles from the City of 
New York. Not far from the place of my residence was a pretty 
thick wood or swamp, in which great numbers of crows who 
used to cross the river from the opposite shore were accustomed 
to roost.” Of Maryland we have already heard through Dr. 
Godman. H. W. Henshaw has kindly furnished me with valuable 
additional information respecting a roost near Washington, D. 
C., “between the Aqueduct bridge, just above Georgetown, and 
the Chain bridge, some three miles from the latter.” 
In the “high, deciduous trees of Arlington cemetery” is g7 
other favorite resort, and the same gentleman adds that one P? 
these roosts includes about eight to ten acres of woodland, chiefly 
composed of deciduous trees. We may conclude that, since 
Godman’s day, Maryland crows have forsaken the pines of the 
esapeake region, and, like their New Jersey brethren, € 
a more stormy perch among the bare branches of deciduows 
_ forests. My informant estimates the number of crows winter fe 
about Washington at near forty thousand, stating that, ‘ine 
opinion of many, the number is much greater, and I think I have 
_ Seen statements in the newspapers running up into the hun 
